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| Monday,
January 15, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Fog comes in way of CMs’
meeting J&K panchayat poll from
today
News analysis Jammu roads busiest after Tokyo Restore autonomy to J&K: Farooq |
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| Kashmiris pray
for rain SRINAGAR, Jan 14 — A large number of people, including women and children, today offered special prayers at the Idgah grounds in the city with the hope of getting respite from the scourge of dry-spell that had been hitting parts of Jammu and Kashmir for the past three years. 
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Fog comes in way of CMs’
meeting JAMMU, Jan 14 — Thick fog came between Punjab and Kashmir Chief Ministers’ meeting at Chandigarh yesterday. Dr Farooq Abdullah and Power Minister S.S. Slathia were scheduled to fly to Chandigarh to meet Mr Parkash Singh Badal to ask him to come to the rescue of Jammu and Kashmir by releasing full share of the state from the Ranjit Sagar power project. As Dr Farooq and Mr Slathia were preparing to fly to Chandigarh, they were informed by the pilot of the government aircraft that the plane could not take off because of thick fog. The programme was postponed and Dr Farooq had to leave for Srinagar. Official sources said the Chief Minister, buckling under people’s protest rallies over the acute power crisis, plans to request Mr Badal to release 120 mw of electricity which is the state’s share on account of the flow of waters from the Ravi into Punjab. Now Jammu and Kashmir receives about 50 mw of electricity from Punjab. The Power Minister had visited Delhi to seek Central assistance in tiding over the crisis. The Union Minister for Energy assured the state of a favourable response. But the fall in electricity generation by power projects attached with the Northern Grid has restricted the Centre’s hand in releasing additional power to the state. The state’s daily power requirement is over 21 million units. At present not more than 11 million units are available including over six million units from the Northern Grid. This has warranted an 11-hour curtailment in power supply. The result has been that groups of people have taken to the streets disrupting traffic and paralysing work in educational institutions. Life is expected to be severely affected during the proposed ABVP bandh in Jammu and surrounding areas tomorrow. Various parts of Jammu have witnessed police-people clashes over the power crisis. Yesterday passenger transport services were disrupted for several hours on the Jammu-Pathankot highway when protesters staged dharnas on the road. Since the upper reaches of the state have yet to witness heavy snowfall, the government fears the situation will be worse in the summer months. Hence, Dr Farooq may visit Punjab shortly to seek help from Mr Badal. |
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J&K panchayat poll from today JAMMU, Jan 14 (PTI) — The first phase of the panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir, spread over a period of three days, will be held in Rajouri, Poonch and Kupwara districts from tomorrow. Over five lakh electorate will decide the fate of 1,667 candidates, panchs and sarpanchs in 125 panchayats of these districts during the period, an official spokesman said here. He said while Poonch and Rajouri districts in Jammu Division had 38 and 60 panchayats, respectively, Kupwara district in the Kashmir valley had 27 panchayats. However, in Kupwara elections would be held in the blocks of Tangdhar, Teetwal and some areas of Keran in the first phase of the polling. The administration had made elaborate arrangements for the polling, including security. The results of the elections would be announced immediately after the polling is completed in the evening. |
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News analysis After much haggling, the APHC finally decided to drop the Chairman Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat and Yasin Malik of the JKLF from the team visiting Pakistan. There still are bottlenecks and the final picture is yet to emerge. Professor Bhat is in the Hurriyat conglomerate on the ticket of the Muslim Conference. It is a different thing that his house once had been a zealous supporter of the Congress in Kashmir. The Muslim Conference is the original political party of Jammu and Kashmir, that started the freedom movement way back in late twenties. Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah first joined this very party and he continued with it till 1939 when he parted and regrouped present the National Conference. Eversince the Muslim Conference came to be represented in the State as the wing of the Muslim League while the National Conference was considered ideologically very close to the Indian National Congress. But the fact is that neither the Muslim Conference nor the National Conference actually went the whole hog either with the Muslim League or the Indian National Conference during the hey day of freedom struggle in Kashmir. The Muslim Conference established its headquarters in Muzaffarabad in PoK as a counterfoil to the National Conference in Srinagar. Thus, while India and Pakistan continued their tantrums over Kashmir all these years, the Muslim Conference under successive leaderships aimed its guns on the National Conference in Kashmir. After the stalwarts of the Muslim Conference like Chowdhury Abbas and others quit the scene, the leadership fell on Sardar Qayyum Khan who has been holding the fort ever since. He is pitted against the PPP in PoK at present. When the State Congress denied ticket to Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat in Sopor constituency, he felt badly bruised and fell to a sentiment of revenge. Knowing that the Muslim Conference had still some small strongholds in Kashmir, Professor Ghani sought and joined it particularly in a hope that he would come into limelight only as its activist. Whether the Muslim Conference (based in PoK) opts for Pakistan is a moot question. Theoretically speaking it has the only option of asking for a united state of Jammu and Kashmir in which Muslims will have predominance and secularism would be paid lip service. Its goal is to seize power and show down the National Conference. But the question is whether the Muslim Conference is certain that India will go out of Kashmir and the pre 1947 State will be reborn? Perhaps it is not certain nor does it raise unnecessary aspirations among its cadres. This thinking is not hidden from Kashmir branch of the Muslim Conference of which Prof. Ghani is a representative. This explains his reservations of having joined the team that now on way to Pakistan. As far as Yasin Malik is concerned, he could not have joined the team at all. He has rebelled against the authority of Amanullah Khan and established his own chapter of the JKLF in Kashmir. He has no doubt received some support from some of the dissidents in PoK and some Kashmiri Diaspora in London. But that is a different thing. Going to Pakistan where he would have to confront Amanullah Khan and his associates would have put them all in bad light. They could have come to accusations and counter accusations. Therefore the ISI thought it expedient to advise the Hurriyat to drop Yasin Malik. Perhaps the ISI is becoming more and more uncertain of Yasin Malik. The interesting question is why has Abdul Ghani Lone been included in the visiting team? While the APHC visiting team was to be cobbled together, he said that he had known Pakistan during his recent visit and was not interested to be in the team? But then he reneged at the 11th hour. It will be recalled that Maulvi Abbas Ansari and Sheikh Abdul
Aziz, the members of the APHC Executive Council did not vote in favour of Abdul Ghani Lone for the Chairmanship of the APHC although till the last moments of voting, they had assured him of their support. That event had indicated a trend towards polarisation in the APHC. The speeches of Abdul Ghani Lone made at various places in Pakistan and PoK when on a visit in connection with the marriages of Amanullah Khan’s daughter, if taken in totality, clearly indicate his individualistic approach to questions related to Kashmir issue. Lone is a man of strong ego, an attribute that has been his bane ever since he came into political limelight. Contrarily, both Abbas Ansari and Shiekh Abdul Aziz (and of course Geelani) are avidly pro-Pakistan. Abbas Ansari has to settle a score with his cousin brothers of powerful Musavi house of Badgam, who either are strong. Congressites or National Conferencites. Abdul Ghani Lone understands the compulsions of Ansari and does not consider him a thorn in his side. But then he must settle score with the Jamaatis. Evidently, the Jammati faction in the visiting team will have severe reservations in having an open dialogue with the militant leadership or the extremist religious leadership in Pakistan. It stems from the presence of Abdul Ghani Lone who has the courage and audacity to raise questions and seek clarifications on some of their statements that would otherwise suit the ISI and Pakistani chapters. The case of Maulavi Omar Farooq is different. He must perforce maintain his profile as the scion of the House of Mir Waizs of Kashmir. This house has strong and historical secular and humanist tradition. It was Mirwaiz Maulvi Yusuf Shah who had migrated to PoK after 1947 events. He never hid his experience in Pakistan and exhorted Kashmiri Muslims to rethink on the option of separating from India and joining Pakistan. Maulvi Farooq can neither underestimate the weight of his ancestral tradition nor can he forget that militants gunned down his eminent father in 1990 because he was suspected of following moderate line among popular Muslim leaders of Kashmir. From this background study we are tempted to draw the inference that fissures will deepen in the APHC after its team interacts with Pakistani leaders. Moderates will find themselves moving away because from their estimation, the masses of Kashmiri people, by and large, are votaries of peace and dialogue. For hardliners in the APHC, neither peace nor dialogue needs to be given too much importance.
JAMMU, Jan 14 — Jammu is the second busiest city of Asia after Tokyo.
The historic city with a fast growing population of over 12 lakh has unprecedented the vehicular traffic flux of 1.87 lakh registered vehicles. According to a survey, a vehicle crosses a particular point on Jammu roads after every second at an average, making the city the second busiest road in Asia. The State Motor Vehicle Department which has been assigned the task of monitoring, channelising and streamlining the traffic on Jammu roads, organised a week-long road safety rally on January 8. The Transport Minister, Mr Ajat Shatrusingh, flagged off the rally. Debates, group discussions and painting competitions were held. Efforts are also afoot to check pollution. Eight pollution checking centres have been set up in the city. A survey conducted earlier had reported that the levels of the lead oxide and carbon monoxide was increasing on Jammu roads. |
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Restore autonomy to J&K: Farooq SRINAGAR, Jan 14 (UNI) — The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, has said the “only solution” to the Kashmir problem was the restoration of internal autonomy and conversion of the Line of Control into a “soft” international border. Speaking at a condolence meeting in Rafiabad of Baramula district yesterday, he said, “Once we restore autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir and make the LoC a ‘soft’ international border, the Kashmir problem will be over.’’ He said peoples on both the sides could move about freely and this would allow the people of the state to visit Pakistan and Pakistan occupied-Kashmir to see for themselves the plight of the people living there. He said this reality had dawned upon the leaders of the Hurriyat Conference who now wanted to go to Pakistan to discuss the Kashmir problem with their mentors there. He said these leaders were fooling the people by talking about an imminent solution to the Kashmir problem. They have pushed the state and its people into turmoil and bloodshed, he said. Dr Abdullah said India would not leave an inch of Jammu and Kashmir and nobody should harbour any misconceptions about that. |
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Kashmiris pray
for rain SRINAGAR, Jan 14 (PTI) — A large number of people, including women and children, today offered special prayers at the Idgah grounds in the city with the hope of getting respite from the scourge of dry-spell that had been hitting parts of Jammu and Kashmir for the past three years. Hit by the electricity and drinking water shortage, thousands of people joined the ‘Namaz-e-istisqa’, special prayers around 2.00 p.m. in the Idgah grounds and prayed for snow and rains, officials said. The people had taken themselves to the street several times to protest the frequent erratic supply of power and shortage of water in many parts of the state |
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